Feeling Good and Engaged With Life Might Extend Your Lifespan

Having high psychological well-being can mean many things, such as feeling happy and satisfied with life, having warm social relationships, being hopeful about the future, and having a sense of purpose and meaning in life. Our new research shows that each of these aspects of psychological well-being is associated with lower risk of death in a large, national sample of adults over age 50. In this study, older adults in the Health and Retirement Study reported on their psychological well-being approximately every 4 years since 2006 and were tracked through May 2019 to see who was still alive. Several aspects of psychological well-being were associated with lower risks of death over this time.

Older Adults Who Reported High Psychological Well-Being Lived 5-8 Years Longer

To put the effects in context, the survival benefits of high psychological well-being were comparable to the differences in life expectancy associated with having a college degree rather than a less than a high school education. However, they were not as large as the survival differences between having never smoked relative to being a current smoker (this difference was almost 10 years). Our research was among the first studies to report life expectancies associated with high psychological well-being, which is helpful for conveying just how important psychological well-being can be for how long we live.

There are several reasons why psychological well-being may predict survival. Feeling happy and engaged with life may lead people to engage in healthy behaviors, including getting more exercise and smoking less. Psychological well-being may also provide important skills for coping with stress and other challenges. Our prior research shows that psychological well-being can also affect the cardiovascular and immune systems which work to keep us healthy. For example, psychological well-being was associated with lower risk for metabolic syndrome, which is a combination of high blood pressure, high blood glucose, low HDL ("good") cholesterol in the blood, high triglycerides in the blood, and a large waist circumference. Metabolic syndrome is an important risk factor for heart disease, diabetes, and other health problems.

Another goal of our research was to see if psychological well-being might protect people at risk of short lives due to low educational attainment. In our research, older adults with a college degree lived more than 7 years longer than older adults with less than a high school education. But two aspects of psychological well-being were not equally protective against the risk of death for all adults. Rather, older adults with more education saw the biggest survival benefits from high positive affect (happiness) and purpose in life. Those with low education, who have the highest risk for short lives, did not benefit as much from their positive affect or purpose in life.

Both positive affect and purpose in life are important for dealing with stress. These aspects of psychological well-being are associated with being exposed to fewer stressful experiences and with having more resources and strategies to cope with stress when it happens. We think that older adults with higher education may have benefited more from positive affect and purpose in life because they tend to experience stressors that are less frequent, less severe, and have a shorter duration than the types of stressors experienced by older adults with lower education. Older adults with lower education may experience stressors that are more frequent, more severe, of longer duration, and be less controllable, and positive affect and purpose in life were less effective at reducing stress in these contexts. However, the other three aspects of psychological well-being, like being hopeful about the future, feeling satisfied in life, and having warm social relationships, were equally protective for the risk of death regardless of education. Therefore, these may be better targets to improve within the population so that there are equal benefits of psychological well-being, regardless of education levels.

Scientific research shows that there are many ways to increase your psychological well-being. These could be connecting with other people and nurturing high-quality relationships, writing about your goals in life, being authentic with your core values, and volunteering and engaging with your community. These activities feel good, and our research suggests that they may also help you live longer.

Psychological well-being is more than just being happy all the time. It is also about knowing yourself and your unique strengths and weaknesses, having warm and trusting relationships, growing and developing as a person, and having a sense of purpose in your life. Our research shows that psychological well-being is important for your physical health and how long you live. It is an important aspect of our lives, and promoting psychological well-being may help many people live longer, healthier, and more fulfilling lives.  

For Further Reading

Boylan, J. M., Tompkins, J. L., & Krueger, P. M. (2022). Psychological well-being, education, and mortality. Health Psychology, 41(3), 225–234. https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0001159

Boylan, J. M., & Ryff, C. D. (2015). Psychological well-being and metabolic syndrome: Findings from the midlife in the United States national sample. Psychosomatic Medicine, 77(5), 548–558. https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0000000000000192

Jennifer Morozink Boylan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Colorado Denver. Her research focuses on health disparities, psychological factors that influence physical health, and biological mechanisms that link the social environment to disease processes.